在1865年,以挖掘、販賣化石為工作的John Griffiths,在英格蘭肯特郡的福克斯頓一處海岸,發現這些恐龍化石、皮內成骨。他將這些化石賣給治金學學者John Percy,再轉手賣給古生物學家托馬斯·亨利·赫胥黎(Thomas Henry Huxley),赫胥黎雇用Griffiths在該地繼續挖掘。儘管該挖掘地點是位在潮間帶,挖掘難度高,他們仍在該地出土其他化石,包含部份腦殼及一些顱後身體骨骼。
在1867年,托馬斯·亨利·赫胥黎這將這化石命名為恐怖棘甲龍(學名Acanthopholis horridus)[1]。屬名在古希臘文意思是「尖刺的鱗片」,意指這種恐龍的鱗甲形狀;種名在拉丁文則意為「可怕的」。在1890年,亞瑟·史密斯·伍德沃德(Arthur Smith Woodward)提出pholis是陰性字根,所以將種名修改為相對應的horrida[2]。
^Huxley, T.H., 1867, "On Acanthopholis horridus, a new reptile from the Chalk-Marl", Geological Magazine, 4: 65-67
^A.S. Woodward and C.D. Sherborn, 1890, A Catalogue of British Fossil Vertebrates Dulao & Company, London pp. 396
^Etheridge, R., 1867, "On the stratigraphical position of Acanthopholis horridus, a new reptile from the Chalk Marl", Geological Magazine, 4: 67-69
^Seeley, H.G., 1871, "On Acanthopholis platypus (Seeley), a pachypod from the Cambridge Upper Greensand", Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 8: 305-318
^Seeley, H.G., 1869, Index to the Fossil Remains of Aves, Ornithosauria, and Reptilia from the Secondary Strata arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge. Deighton, Bell and Co., Cambridge, 143 pp
^Seeley, H.G., 1879, "On the Dinosauria of the Cambridge Greensand", Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society35: 591-636
^Pereda-Suberbiola, X. & Barrett, P.M., 1999, "A systematic review of ankylosaurian dinosaur remains from the Albian-Cenomanian of England", Special Papers in Palaeontology, 60: 177-208
Carpenter, Kenneth. Phylogenetic Analysis of Ankylosauria. Carpenter, Kenneth(ed) (编). The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. 2001: 455–480. ISBN 978-0-253-33964-5.